IAB To Shift Discussions About 'Programmatic' To 'Automation'

Aiming to streamline the massive jumble of programmatic processes, tasks and platforms, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) on Wednesday released “An Evolving Framework for Advertising
Automation.” It creates clarity around programmatic functions and encourage more meaningful conversations among buyers, sellers, and technology vendors.

The report introduces a
consistent vocabulary and structure for programmatic advertising, including details of the core processes involved in automating digital advertising.

In issuing the report, the IAB said it
wants to shift discussions about “programmatic” to “automation.” The IAB said the use of consistent vocabulary is important to benchmark market size and analyze investment.

The report identifies five key steps in the automation life cycle: plan, decision, transact, deliver, optimize. It also provides buyer and seller perspectives, looking at the distinct technologies
each party needs to use.

“Automation is affecting every industry in dramatic ways. In digital advertising, what we’ve called
‘programmatic’ has progressed rapidly, but has given rise to new challenges, including transparency, brand safety, and fraud -- and it hasn’t always created efficiency and value as
intended,” Dennis Buchheim, senior vice president, data and ad effectiveness, told Real-Time Daily via email.

Buchheim said the IAB developed the new framework to facilitate
a deeper and more consistent understanding that will encourage more productive conversations.

FINALLY! The industry may drop the term programmatic for the more mundane, but precise and long used word to describe the substitution or supplementation of manual tasks with computers - automation. The word has been used and understood, for decades.